Cracked or Chipped a Tooth? We'll Repair It — Often Today
Bit into something hard, took an elbow at practice, or just heard a crunch? Save any pieces in milk and call. Most chips are bonded in a single visit at our Salem office.
Chipped, cracked, or split — the difference matters
These words get used interchangeably, but to a dentist they mean very different things, and each has its own fix.
A chip is a piece of enamel broken off the edge or corner of the tooth. It might feel sharp against your tongue but usually doesn't hurt much. Chips are the easiest to repair.
A crack is a fracture line running through the tooth — sometimes visible, often not. The telltale sign is a sharp zing when you bite down and release. Cracks are sneaky: they don't show well on X-rays, so we find them with a bite test and magnification.
A split is a crack that has traveled all the way through, separating the tooth into pieces. At that point the tooth usually can't be saved whole, which is exactly why we push people to come in at the crack stage, not the split stage.
First: save the pieces in milk
If a fragment broke off, don't wrap it in a tissue where it will dry out. Drop it in a small cup of milk (or hold it in your cheek if milk isn't handy) and bring it with you. An intact, moist fragment can often be bonded right back onto the tooth, and even when it can't, it helps us match the shape and shade of the repair exactly.
Until you're seen: chew on the other side, skip very hot and cold drinks, and cover any sharp edge with sugar-free gum or drugstore dental wax so it doesn't shred your tongue.
Why "it doesn't hurt yet" is the trap
Teeth don't heal the way bones do. A crack never gets smaller — every bite flexes it a little wider, working toward the nerve. What starts as a $150 bonding repair can become a crown, then a root canal once bacteria reach the pulp, and finally an extraction if the crack runs below the gum line. The earlier you come in, the more tooth, and money. You keep.
How we repair it, from smallest to biggest
- Smoothing & polishing — for tiny edge chips. A few minutes, no numbing, and the sharp edge is gone.
- Tooth-colored bonding — for small to medium chips. We sculpt composite resin onto the tooth and match the shade so closely you'll forget which tooth it was. Usually one visit.
- A crown — for bigger cracks and broken cusps. A dental crown caps the whole tooth and holds the crack together so it can't spread.
- Root canal + crown — if the crack has exposed the pulp. We clean out the nerve, seal the tooth, and crown it. The tooth stays; the pain goes.
- Extraction — the last resort, only when a tooth is split beyond saving. If it comes to that, we'll walk you through replacement options honestly, with no pressure.
What it costs in Salem
Our fees are intentionally set about 20% below what most Salem offices charge. As a guide: smoothing a minor chip often costs nothing as part of the exam, bonding typically runs $120–$280, and a crown $650–$850. You'll get the exact number for your tooth in writing before we pick up a single instrument. We welcome most PPO plans and OHP patients alike — a broken tooth is generally covered as urgent care. If it happened after hours, our emergency page explains how the on-call line works.